Bookmark with

The snow is affecting the ability of staff to travel in to Treforest and Glyntaff Campuses, so all non-essential services such as the Sports Centre and Libraries are closed today, Sunday 18th March.

Estates teams are working hard through the day to clear all USW Campuses for normal opening tomorrow. If today’s snow means that we can’t open, we’ll provide updates through the USW website, UniLife and social media. Any changes to assignment deadlines will be communicated via Blackboard.

We have, again, been made aware that a number of students have recently been contacted by fraudsters saying that there is a problem with their visa and then trying to extort money from them.

This time the fraudsters have varied their tactic and are asking students to purchase iTunes vouchers to pay to get their visa corrected.

If you are contacted by someone purporting to be from the Home Office or other government agency, please ask for their contact details and tell them you will ask the University’s Immigration & International Student Advice team (IISA) to speak to them on your behalf.

If they refuse to accept this, then it is likely to be a scam, state you will contact the UKVI via the University for verification and then hang up. Please then contact the IISA immediately.

Please do not give out personal or account information to anyone by telephone or email and, if you are not sure, come in to see us in IISA for advice.

Your lecturers have a great wealth of knowledge when it comes to advice about how to be a successful student, so we have persuaded them to share a few of their top tips with you.

You can also see these tips on the large digital screens around campus. We have included the first two of the tips with some extra information and helpful links here – keep a look out on UniLife and the screens over the coming weeks for more good advice from your lecturers.

A deadline is a deadline

Handing in your work even just a few minutes after the deadline, can adversely affect your marks.

In certain circumstances, students are allowed a further five working days to submit work but this will be capped at 40%. If work is not handed in within the correct timeframes, the assessment will receive 0%.

However, there may be occasions when circumstances outside your control mean you are unable to meet a deadline or take an exam on a particular day. If this is the case then you may be able to apply for extenuating circumstances.

If you are experiencing difficulties and think you need to apply for extenuating circumstances, please contact your Advice Zone as soon as possible.

Don’t leave referencing until last

We know many students add references after they’ve written their assignment, but it is much easier to add your sources as you go. This will help take the pressure off when you are approaching that all-important deadline.

Referencing is a crucial part of your assignment as it indicates where you have used material that did not originate with you. Making sure you reference correctly will help avoid plagiarising someone else’s work.

University of South Wales are delighted to announce that they are adopting the homelessness charity Llamau as their charity partner for the next two years. Llamau’s mission is to eradicate homelessness for young people and vulnerable women in Wales.

Vice-Chancellor Julie Lydon with Wendy Collier from Llamau

The University made its first donation to Llamau, with its Christmas card donation at the end of 2017. Some of the University’s Graduate Interns have organised an end of term charity gig on Thursday 22nd March at Porters, Cardiff. The fundraiser is free to attend and welcomes both staff and students.

The University is already working with Llamau on various projects, such as securing work placements for students. Professor Julie Lydon, Vice-Chancellor of the University of South Wales, said: “Llamau is a charity that campaigns and actively supports young people who are homeless, especially young women. We are pleased to be working with another fantastic organisation that has contributed so much to social justice in Wales.”

USW’s students and alumni have also experienced first-hand the support that Llamau can provide. USW alumna Beth, benefitted from Llamau’s support before joining USW. She said: “I moved into one of Llamau’s houses when I was 18, and that was when I realised that I could achieve my dreams if I wanted to. When I moved in I wasn’t sure if I would still be able to go to university – whether I’d be able to carry on studying for my A-Levels and get the grades I needed. But Llamau helped me to see that with their support, I could achieve anything I wanted to.”

Wendy Collie, Income Generation Manager at Llamau, said: “At Llamau, we believe that no young person or vulnerable women should ever have to experience homelessness and are extremely grateful to University of South Wales for choosing to support Llamau as their nominated Charity.”

If you are organising a charity event and would like to make a donation to Llamau, you can find out more about how to do this on their website.

The National Student Survey (NSS) has been running for three weeks now. It’s really important to the University to get feedback from students; your experience – both what you liked and what you think could be improved – will be used to help shape the future for your fellow students.

The NSS is open to final year students; if you’re in your final year, you will have already received an email about it.

After sitting comfortably in first position for two weeks straight, Education, Early Years and Social Work have slipped into third place, with Design and Digital making a surprise leap to the top of the leaderboard. With only 1.5% separating the top three forerunners, every completed survey makes a difference.

The school with the highest response rate when the survey closes will win £2000 for a student activity working with the Students’ Union. Last year the school that won (Education) organised a party for graduating students.